Artificial Lights.

"what makes you invincible?" you asked me.
you said it as though you wanted me to lay my secrets
scattered across the floor of your bedroom
so you could read it like a book and hand it back to me after your done

i don't tell you about how weak i am
about how artificial lights corrode my eyes
or when people are fighting the demons in my chest growl
and echo out of my lungs like a muttered prayer


"i breathe in the poisons of unnatural law and exhale the irregularities of motion and space."
"like what?"
"like the angles of opened doors in abandoned houses and the patterns of little handprints on orphanages' windows."
"is that why you love me?"
"hm?"
"because i am abandoned and forgotten."
"i will never forget you."
"i am your stray."
"we will never stray, sweetheart."


it is freezing and the window is open but you will not let me touch it
you say that if ever the blood in your veins runs too cold
then you can leap towards the open skyline into the heavens
because the most reassuring thought of all is death
you scare me so i do not leave you that night. (and the next and the next and the next..)

you trace the scars on my back
and when i show you the ones that are art
then you say that you want them too
i tell you your skin is too beautiful and i prove it that night (and the next and the next and the next..)

one day you asked me why i wear so many rings on my fingers
i tell you i hide my secrets beneath the metal so when people shake my hand
my heart can tell their hearts how dark and viscious it is
but that's okay because anybody can open their windows and leap into the heavens